A few years ago, an internet outage meant no web browsing. Today it can mean no access to a cloud-based EMR, no phones, no telehealth visits, no eFax and no remote support from your IT provider. For many care facilities, the internet connection has quietly become as essential as electricity.
The question for an administrator is not whether outages will happen, but what one would cost and whether a backup connection is a sensible investment.
List the functions that rely on the internet:
Cloud-based clinical records and medication systems.
Internet-based phone service.
Telehealth and remote physician visits.
eFax, e-prescribing and lab or pharmacy interfaces.
Email, scheduling and timekeeping.
Cloud-managed Wi-Fi and security cameras.
Remote support and monitoring from your IT partner.
Then estimate how long your staff could operate on downtime procedures. A few hours may be manageable. A full day may create real clinical and financial risk.
Understanding the causes helps you choose a backup that actually helps:
A cable cut by construction or a storm, which affects all services on that physical route.
A provider outage affecting a region.
Equipment failure inside your building, such as a failed router or power supply.
A power outage that takes down your network gear even if the provider is working.
Congestion or degraded performance that is not a complete outage but makes systems unusable.
A second connection from the same provider using the same cable route may share the same failure. True resilience means diversity.
Second wired provider. A different company using a different physical path, such as cable broadband paired with fiber. Often the most reliable backup.
Fixed wireless. Radio-based internet delivered from a tower. Independent of the wired route, though performance varies.
Cellular failover. A modem that uses a mobile network. Fast to deploy and independent of cables, but may have data limits and lower speeds.
Satellite. Useful in rural areas where options are limited, with higher latency.
Availability depends on your location, and options in rural Oklahoma, Texas and Arkansas can be limited, so ask providers what is truly available at your address.
A backup does not always have to match the primary line. If it carries only critical systems, such as the EMR, phones and eFax, a smaller connection may be sufficient. Configure rules, called quality of service, so that when you are on the backup, clinical traffic gets priority and guest Wi-Fi and streaming are limited or paused.
A backup that requires someone to drive in and swap a cable at 2 a.m. is not much of a backup. Use a firewall or router that supports dual connections and switches automatically when it detects a failure. It should also alert your IT team so the outage is reported to the provider quickly.
Every piece of equipment on the path needs power, including the modem, firewall, switches and any access points. Put them on battery backup and, if possible, on generator circuits.
At least twice a year, test failover during a planned window by disconnecting the primary line and confirming that key systems keep working. Verify that phones, the EMR and eFax still function, and that traffic prioritization is correct.
The monthly cost of a second connection is usually small compared to the cost of lost productivity, delayed billing or the risk of care disruption. Consider the decision in terms of risk:
How many hours could we operate manually?
What would downtime cost us in staff time and resident care?
Do we have contractual or regulatory obligations that depend on connectivity?
If your answers are uncomfortable, a second connection is likely justified.
Ask providers about guaranteed repair times and whether business-class support is included. A residential-grade connection may have no guaranteed response time.
UnityCare IT helps healthcare facilities evaluate connectivity options, set up automatic failover and test it. We can look at your current setup and tell you where your biggest exposure is.
Call or text: 405-285-3845
New customers: start@unitycareit.com
Existing customers: support@unitycareit.com
Address: 2524 N Broadway Ste 554 PMB 947974, Edmond, Oklahoma 73034